Manual driving has slowly become a lost art. Consumers don’t seem to know or care to learn how to drive stick with the technology in cars today. Throw in some constant stop-and-go traffic in Toronto and Montreal and I can see why the majority feel that way.

 
Then there’s the other side of society that feel the exact opposite way. For them the only true way to drive is with a manual transmission. It allows the driver to be in control of the car. It’s your call whether you want to shift for more power or downshift on turns or in traffic when needed. Unfortunately, there are fewer manual drivers out there and simultaneously fewer manual cars being produced.

 
The best part about owning a manual vehicle is that you will save money on the purchase as well as saving fuel on an everyday basis. It’s well documented that manual transmissions deliver better fuel economy than automatic transmissions. This is mainly due to manuals not having a torque converter for shifting which takes away from the vehicle’s fuel efficiency. Furthermore, you can achieve better fuel economy numbers by shifting up early and driving at a consistent pace avoiding those higher RPMs.

Honda Canada wanted to stop this manual downslide and give out manual driving lessons to those who’d never driven stick before. That idea gave way to the Honda Manual Driving School and now they are into their second year.

 
It wasn’t a surprise that Honda would come up with this event, as they have one of the best press fleet selections of manual vehicles and they do show plenty of respect for their history as well as their manual-driving customers. 

 
You never know when you might need to use this skill someday. You could be in a pinch while needing to rent a car in Europe? You might need to borrow another’s car for an emergency and it’s a manual? Why not learn a new skill? You might be the hero someday.

 
Honda’s Manual Driving School had two race car instructors, Kelly Williams and Daniel Morad as well as the Franczak Enterprises team led by Chris Bye on hand to teach the newbies the first steps and provided some new tips for the veterans. The vehicles on hand were the limited edition 2013 Honda Accord HFP and the Honda Civic Si HFP. Two sporty cars that feature enhanced handling, style and performance.

At first Chris went through a proper seating position in the instructional. To test whether you’re sitting correctly, you should stretch out your arms in front of you, when your wrists are level with the top of the steering wheel – you’re in a perfect seating position. I personally sit even closer to the three pedals when in a manual vehicle. Not sure why I do this…I guess I have a non-realistic fear of being too far away to depress the clutch all the way.

 
As I’m jotting down some notes and taking some photos I overhear a question, “so what’s this whole clutch thing all about?”

It’s not as mystifying as it seems. Each newbie got one-on-one instruction on how to move a vehicle without pressing down on the accelerator. Believe it or not, this can be done. Just put it into first gear and gently ease off the clutch. At the half way point you will start to move, so continue releasing the clutch fully and then gently use your right foot to apply some throttle. If you do this successfully – you’re off and running, but not close to being done.

The next step is to switch into second gear by depressing the clutch fully. Once depressed, put it into second gear and once again ease off the clutch at a bit quicker pace. This time once you hit that halfway point you have to apply a little throttle, while easing fully off the clutch. After second, gear shifting gets easier, as you only need to depress the clutch half way before switching into gear leading to much smoother transitions.

It’s a lot to take in and it takes a while to master. If you stall a whole bunch of times (and you will), don’t worry – we all do it. Practice is the key and Honda provided enough challenges to practice starting and stopping. Unfortunately, we didn’t have all day, so the instructors challenged the newbies with some driving exercises including a slalom, a few courses and an emergency stopping drill.

As long as we’re in a secured area – I feel it’s always best after some initial instruction to throw people into the fire and see how they react. You can only start to get comfortable with the clutch-throttle application on gear shifts through practice and feel. Believe it or not, the new drivers were able to practice gear shifts throughout the course, even reaching third gear.

Its impressive how quickly the art of manual driving caught on and it just shows that it only takes some instruction and practice to learn the ancient skill of manual driving. I’m glad to see Honda is taking the initiative to promote manual driving and I can tell you first hand, all those newbies had an exhilarating experience and more importantly learned something from it. It might be basic instructions, but it could get you out of a jam someday. And for Honda’s sake, this event provides them some nice exposure and more importantly the hope of more manual sales.